Despite the emergence of Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that stipulates that since animals are sentient beings, when formulating and implementing the EU’s policy, both the Union and the Member States shall pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, EU’s animal welfare policy is still approached very separately which undermines integration and thus downplays the very key rationale of Article 13. The separation between nature conservation and animal welfare policies is not new, but that it leads to conflicts and discrepancies in law is. It is due to a lack of knowledge about how the law can be approached in the interface between nature conservation and animal welfare, that the potential of law for overcoming the lack of integration between them is currently underutilized. This research aims to assist in how animal welfare requirements can be integrated in EU’s nature conservation policy, in particular with regard to species protection. This will be done by analyzing EU (case) law regarding nature conservation and animal welfare. Both EU areas are in practice conflicting over certain issues and the current lack of integration leaves actors to find an unpredictable ad hoc solution. This research aims to overcome this unpredictability and instead provide clarity by introducing tangible legal anchor points. This original research will lay the very first foundation for legal implementation of compassionate conservation in the EU.